Certain automotive vehicle seat configurations are known. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,111 to Charles discloses a vehicle auxiliary seat for spanning a space between first and second adjacent structures. In a preferred embodiment, the seat includes a sheet providing a seating surface and a roll for storing the sheet. The sheet has a first free end. The roll is rotatively mounted with the first structure. The seat also includes a connector to removably attach the sheet with the second structure and a ratchet to tension the sheet to a desired tension by rotating the roll. The ratchet has a telescopically extended ratchet arm. The ratchet can only be adjusted to a position tensioning the roll or adjusted to release the tension in the roll when the ratchet handle is extended.
As another example, International Publication Number WO 96/17743 discloses a folding seating unit for a vehicle. The folding seating unit provides a forward or rearward facing seat with a backrest which is capable of being folded flat and sideways against the side of the vehicle beneath the window of the vehicle. The seating unit can be stowed within side trim panels without obscuring windows, or the load carrying area of the vehicle floor. The seating unit includes an outboard leg coupled to the vehicle side and an inboard leg engaging with the vehicle floor. The seating unit also includes a retraction mechanism that provides automatic folding of the inboard leg when the seating unit is folded to its stowed position, and an extending backrest squab which extends the effective height of the backrest when the seat is in a deployed condition, but retracts when the seat is in the stowed position.
As yet another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,463 to Swanson et al. discloses a vehicle seat assembly that has a hidden storage compartment disposed in a seat member of the seat assembly. The seat member is pivotally connected to a support mounted on a vehicle floor and is pivotable between forward and rear positions. The seat member has a seating side which faces upward in the rear position and an oppositely facing storage side which faces upward in the forward position. The storage side includes a recess in the seat member internally defining a storage compartment and has an openable cover normally closing the storage compartment and openable to allow access thereto. The cover forms a storage floor surface when the seat member is in the forward position. The assembly has a releasable latch for retaining the cover in a closed position and preventing spilling of the contents therefrom when the seat member is inverted in the rear position. When the seating member is in the rear position, the storage compartment is hidden from view.